The Supreme Court on Friday expressed serious concern over the “deeply disturbing reality of child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation in India”.
The court said the crimes were not “isolated aberrations but form part of a wider and entrenched pattern of organised exploitation that continues to flourish despite legislative safeguards”.
The court dismissed an appeal filed by K.P. Kiran Kumar, who had challenged the findings of a trial court and Karnataka High Court convicting him under the Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act, 1956, for allegedly pushing a minor girl into prostitution.
A bench of Justices Manoj Misra and Joymalya Bagchi passed the judgment while dismissing the appeal filed by the convict, who had challenged the conviction citing alleged infirmities in the claims of the victim and procedural irregularities that preceded his arrest, and the raid on the premises from where the prostitution racket was being
conducted.
“The instant case lays bare the deeply disturbing reality of child trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation in India, an offence that strikes at the very foundations of dignity, bodily integrity and the state’s constitutional promise of protection to every child against exploitation leading to moral and
material abandonment.
“The facts before us are not isolated aberrations but form part of a wider and entrenched pattern of organised exploitation that continues to flourish despite legislative safeguards,” Justice Bagchi, who authored the judgment, observed.
The bench laid down guidelines for courts to observe while dealing with child trafficking. It said that if, on such nuanced appreciation, the version of the victim appears to be credible and convincing, a conviction may be maintained on her sole testimony. A victim of trafficking, particularly a minor, is not an accomplice. Her deposition is to be given due credence as that of an injured witness, the court said.